What About the Food?

We understand that providing good nutrition and hydration is critical to keeping our crew going. Providing food service for a couple of hundred people per day on top of a mountain is also a logistical challenge. Our Food Services Crew works diligently to provide our volunteers with plenty of good quality food and hydration. Each day that you volunteer to be on course, you will receive breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast is provided at the morning meeting at Spruce Saddle. Self service beverages (coffee, tea, hot cocoa, fountain drinks, and fruit juice) are available in the cafeteria area on the main level. We also provide oat meat, dried fruit and nuts here as well. The cafeteria is not open to the public at this time and we are reminded not to take anything out of the coolers or anything with a bar code.

Upstairs in our meeting area we will provide breakfast burritos or sandwiches and fresh donuts from The Northside Kitchen, as well as fresh fruit (bananas, apples, and oranges).

Our main food service is provided at the Bird Feeder which is the large volunteer tent at the top of Lift 9. Here we will have hot soups, a variety of deli sandwiches, fresh fruit, chips, and cookies. We also serve hot coffee, tea, and cocoa. Once we get rolling and we start running racers, we typically alternate days and provide gas grills in your section and provide you with grillable sandwiches, (hamburgers, chicken burgers, or brats) in addition to the soup and sandwiches, etc., that are available at the tent.

A plentiful supply of water and Gatorade will be available at Spruce Saddle, the Bird Feeder soup tent, and the Birdhouse tent. We will not be providing any bottled water as this is the most difficult way to get water to the top of the mountain and the trash it generates becomes problematic. Please bring your own reusable beverage container for water or Gatorade. Make sure you fill it up when you can, put it in your backpack and take it with you to your section. The insulated containers are the best because if it is cold out, your liquids could freeze if they aren’t in an insulated container. You are also encouraged to bring a small wide mouth insulated thermos so that you can take some hot soup with you to your section. Please understand that boiling water at 10,000 ft. takes a long time. We send someone up as soon as Lift 8 opens to start this process to make hot soup available as soon as is possible.

It is important to keep eating during the day. It is encouraged that you bring your personal favorite snacks or energy bars with you to keep you going between meals. Due to the logistical complexity of this event, we are not able to accommodate special dietary or allergy needs. If you are a picky eater, have a special dietary need, or have any food allergies, you will need to provide for yourself.